Replies

Full Court,

You made an interesting quote from Scripture:

1 Corinthians 11:9 "Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man."

My translation actually reads a little differently. "Neither was the man created from the woman; but the woman from the man." This being, of course, a reference to Adam and Eve and reflecting that man and woman are created in such a way that the they are made to become, "one flesh," which God joins and man may not split assunder.

There are a lot of ideologies that would argue today that there is nothing essential about gender. Rather it is simply seen as an accident of chromosome shuffling during conception--an individual could have easily received the father's X as his Y. Gender is seen as a mere coin toss, and gender differences are seen as something that are created by society, and not something intrinsic to the individual. It follows directly from this view, that because gender is nonessential to the individual, we should be able to mix and match genders in "marriage."

In your post, you underscore a much more complex, and I think richer view of the relationship between women and men. God did not have to create gender, we could all have been hermaphrodites. but God instead choose to create us in His image--male and female. God made men and women for each other. Your view underscores that.

Where we must be careful, however, is that we are going to far if we claim that women are made for men, and not men made for women. Women and men are created for God, to share in His own blessed life. We cannot accept any view, however, which asserts that women are not equal to men in dignity (and I'm sure you didn't imply this was not the case,), nor can we somehow claim that men's experiences are normative for humans, with women being in some sense an appendage. Both men and women are created in the image of God.

"For just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things are from God." (1 Cor: 12)

No, verse 9 has "for"; "from" (or "of") is in verse 8.

8 ou gar estin aner ek gyneaikos alla gyne ex andros
9 kai gar ouk ektisthe aner dia ten gynaika alla gyne dia ton andra
8 Non enim vir ex muliere est, sed mulier ex viro.
9 Etenim non est creatus vir propter mulierem, sed mulier propter virum.
(1 Corinthians 11)

Woma is for the man because, like Eve, she is from the man. The instruction to husband is to love the wife, sanctify and cleanse her, and sacrifice himself for her, as given in Ephesians 5.